Airplane control



' P 1940- w. F. KERLIN 2,213,916

AIRPLANE CONTROL Filed March 8, 1959 4 Sheets-Sheet l Inventor William F. Kerlz'n) I MM I w. F. KERLIN 2,213,916

AIRPLANE CONTROL Sept. 3, 1940.

Filed March 8, 1939 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 pat; I u

l9 n9 .1 [I 11:11 I I Invento 1940- w. F. KERLIN 2,213,916

AIRPLANE CONTROL Filed March 8, 1939 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 Inventor IViZ/Z'am Ffierzzk/ A iiomeys Sept. 3, 1940. w. F. KERLIN 2,213,916

AIRPLANE CONTROL Filed March 8, 1939 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 [n venior w'zzzawz'rzrzm A iiorneys Patented Sept. 3, 1940 PATENT OFFICE AIRPLANE CONTROL William F. Kerlin, Rockfield, Ind.

Application March 8,

2 Claims.

- ing and descending and also while in flight, the

ailerons and elevators of the airplane being controlled by the hands of the pilot while the rudder is controlled by the feet.

Another object of this invention is the provision of companion control sticks so mounted and connected with the ailerons and elevators, the pilot may easily control the right and left ailerons independently by movement of the sticks laterally or sideways with respect to a neutral position and one of the sticks is connected to the elevators so that they may be moved in opposite directions by a forward and'backward movement of the stick to which they are comlected, the other stick being free to move therewith without either stick operating or moving the ailerons from a selected position.

A further object of this invention is the provision of means for automatically returning the sticks to neutral position when freed and acting to retain said sticks against movement relative to each other until manually moved or operated.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists in certain novel features of construction, combination and arrangement of parts 3 to be hereinafter more fully described and claimed.

For a complete understanding of my invention, reference is to be had to the following description and accompanying drawings, in which:

86 Figure 1 is a top plan view illustratingan airplane equipped with a control for the ailerons, elevators and rudder thereof and constructed in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 2 is a fragmentary perspective view illustrating the control sticks and. the mounting therefor.

Figure 3 is a side elevation, partly in section, illustrating the control sticks and a part of the mounting.

45. Figure 4 is a sectional view taken on the line 1939, Serial No. 260,540

Figure 9 is a plan view illustrating the control for the rudder.

Figure 10 is a detail sectional view taken on the line llllfl of Figure 9.

Figure 11 is a plan view illustrating a bracket for support of cables or flexible elements employed'for connecting the control sticks to the ailerons and elevators.

Figure 12 is an edge view illustrating the bracket.

Referring in detail to the drawings, the numeral 5 indicates in entirety an airplane of a conventional construction wherein the fuselage is indicated by the character 6, the wings by the character 'l. The wings are equipped with ailerons 8. The fuselage thats the usual cockpit .9 and the tail construction is indicated in entirety by the character I!) including the elevators H and rudder l2. The parts briefly described are common in airplane construction and are merely shown and briefly described for the purpose of outlining the present irvention.

Mounted in the cockpit 9 is a control stick mounting |3 of a gimbal ring type consisting of an annular member M having thereon oppositely disposed pintles 15 adapted to be journaled in suitable anti-frictional bearings l6 carried by the fuselage 6. The annular member 14 has a supporting shaft ll mounted thereon and arranged at right angles to the pintles l5 and provides a journal mounting for companion control sticks indicated by the characters H3 and H! which extend above and below the mounting and have secured to their lower ends counter-balance weightsZU and their upper ends provided with hand grips H. The mounting [3 permits the control sticks to be manually moved forward and backward due to the pintles l5 rotating in the bearings on journals therefor. Also the control sticks may be moved sideways without interference with each other due to their rotatable mounting on the shaft ll.

The counter-balance weights are of hollow construction and have openings 22 so that the amount of ballast within the weights may be varied. The purpose of the weights is to maintain the control sticks I8 and I9 in-vertical position and to return said sticks to this position when freed. Mounted on the weights are magnets 22' acting to attractthe weights and thereby maintain the sticks against relative movement with respect to each other until manually'operated. The weights also are equipped with magnets 23 which when moved in the vicinity of a ring [4 adjacent mounting l3 will tend to support the sticks in their lateral position relieving the operator of some of the load caused by the counter-balance weights when the sticks are, in the latter-named position. The weights when moved a certaindistance away from the ring I41- will of course destroy the attraction between the ring and the magnets and the sticks may freely move to vertical position by the weights when manually freed. k

Flexible elements are connected to the control stick l9 above and below the mounting l3 and cross each other and are connected to the ailerons 8 on the left wing of the airplane; Flexible elements 25 are connected to the control stick I8 above and below the mounting l3 and are crossed with each other and connected to the ailerons 8 of the'right wing of the airplane.

This it will be seen that the ailerons may be independently controlled with respect to each other by the manipulation of the control sticks flexible elements. The brackets and the rollers properly guide the movement of the flexible elements and prevent them from dragging and contacting with the fuselage or any other parts of the airplane.

Mounted on the floorboards of the cockpit 9 are pivotally mounted pedals .29provided with arcuately curved members 30 which extend through openings provided in the floorboards and have mounted thereon coil springs 3| bearing against the pedals 29 and the floorboards acting to restore the pedals 29 to a neutral position. Flexible elements 32 connect the pedals to the rudder l2 so that the-pilot by employing his feet may move the rudder in opposite directions by depressing first-one pedal and then the other pedal, the springs acting each time to restore the pedals to neutral position. Forinstance, if the rudder I2 is to be moved to the left, the left pedal is depressed while the right pedal may swing rearwardly to permit the rudder to turn to the left. The same operation occurs when the right pedal is depressed, the left pedal swings rearwardly allowing the rudder to turn to the right.

' stick.

It is believed that the foregoing description, when taken in connection with the drawings will fully set forth the construction and advantages of my invention to those skilled in the art to which such a device relates, so that further detailed description will not be required.

Having thus described by invention, what I claim is:

1. An airplane control device comprising an annular member .mounted for pivotal movement in opposite directions from a normal horizontal position, a shaft having opposite ends secured to said annular member and arranged at right angles to the pivot of said annular member, control sticks journaled on said shaft and extending above and below the annular member, means for connecting said sticks to control devices of an airplane, weights on the lower ends of the sticks normally sustaining the sticks vertically, and magnetic means on said weights to releasably restrain the sticks in parallelism.

2. An airplane control device comprising an annular member mounted for pivotal movement in opposite directions from a normal horizontal position, a shaft having opposite ends secured to said.,.annular member and arranged atright angles to the pivot of said annular member, control sticks journaled on said shaft and extending above and below the annular member, means for connecting said sticks to control devices of an airplane, weights on the lower ends of the sticks normally sustaining the sticks vertically,. magnetic means on said weights to releasably'restrain the sticks in parallelism, and magnetic means on the weights to coact with the annular member in releasably restraining the sticks swung later:

ally of the normal vertical positions of said sticks.

WILLIAM F. KERLIN. 

